This coffee's story

Pepe Jijón, whose full name is José Ignacio Jijón, is one of the most respected and unconventional figures in modern specialty coffee. Based in Ecuador’s Intag Valley, he is the founder of Finca Soledad, a farm that has come to represent precision, restraint, and quiet elegance in coffee production.

What makes Pepe’s story remarkable is that coffee was never the plan.

Before becoming a producer, Pepe lived an entirely different life. He was a professional mountain climber and guide, deeply connected to nature and exploration. He became the first Latin American to climb the Seven Summits solo, a feat that required extreme discipline, patience, and respect for natural forces. These qualities would later define his approach to coffee, though at the time, he had no idea.

A serious motorcycle accident marked a turning point. During recovery, Pepe reassessed his life and chose a slower, more grounded path. He bought land in the Intag Valley with the intention of reforestation and conservation, not agriculture. Locals suggested that coffee might grow well there. He planted coffee trees almost experimentally — and at that point, he didn’t even drink coffee. Starting a coffee farm from scratch proved to be one of the hardest challenges of his life. Pepe has said that building Finca Soledad was more difficult than climbing Everest. He had no formal agricultural background, little infrastructure, and Ecuador at the time was largely overlooked in the specialty coffee world. Progress was slow, expensive, and uncertain.

What set Pepe apart was his obsessive attention to detail and his refusal to rush. Instead of chasing volume or trends, he focused on understanding his land: altitude, microclimates, soil health, fermentation behavior. He experimented carefully with varieties and processing methods, always aiming for clarity, balance, and elegance, rather than intensity or shock value.

When his coffees finally reached international audiences, notably after presentations at events like World of Coffee Milan, they stood out immediately. They were not loud or aggressive. Instead, they were floral, tea-like, refined, with subtle sweetness and herbal complexity. Buyers and roasters recognized something rare: coffees that demanded attention and rewarded patience.

Pepe’s work has since earned global recognition, including the Sprudge Award for Most Notable Coffee Producer, one of the industry’s highest honors. His coffees are now sought after by top roasters worldwide.

Despite the acclaim, Pepe remains outspoken about the realities of coffee production. He emphasizes that good coffee is the result of hard, risky, often invisible labor, and he challenges the industry’s expectations of cheap prices and instant results. Sustainability, for him, is not a marketing term but a necessity — environmental, economic, and human.

Today, at Finca Soledad, Pepe continues to produce coffees that reflect his philosophy: lightly roasted, floral, herbal, precise, and restrained. Coffees that don’t perform for attention, but reveal themselves slowly, much like the man behind them.

His journey from extreme mountaineering to coffee farming is not a story of reinvention, but of continuity: the same respect for nature, the same patience, the same understanding that the most meaningful experiences are quiet, demanding, and deeply rewarding.

Processing

Finca Soledad is known as a farm that constantly pursues innovative processing methods. Under the leadership of Pepe, the process of experimentation and adjustment never ceases, aiming to create sustainable value for the entire coffee industry. Wave Washed method is one of the achievements of this spirit, a processing technique that emphasizes precision and control, helping to retain the natural sweetness and clarity of the coffee bean.

Wave Washed is a coffee processing method belonging to the Washed group, but it is refined to minimize severe impact on the bean embryo and to regulate the fermentation process more subtly.

Instead of letting the fermentation process follow a fixed cycle, this method uses temperature waves – a controlled alternation between high and low-temperature environments. This sequential change in temperature helps to keep the bean embryo stable, “alive”, and healthy, thereby limiting stress and preventing the loss of the bean’s natural flavor characteristics.

The Wave Washed method was developed and applied at Finca Soledad, a high-altitude farm in Ecuador, under the guidance of Jose Ignacio “Pepe” Jijón. With over a decade of farming and a spirit of continuous experimentation, Pepe seeks processing methods capable of celebrating the “living identity” of each coffee bean.

He does not pursue fermentation styles that aggressively push flavor. Instead, he opts for minimal but profound intervention, based on observation, intuition, and microbiological understanding. Therefore, Wave Washed is a prime result of this approach.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WAVE WASHED METHOD

At Finca Soledad, Wave Washed is performed through strictly regulated fermentation stages using fermentation tanks combined with a refrigerator to create temperature “waves”.

This ensures that the structure and biological activity of the bean embryo are not disrupted. The process typically begins with hand-picking cherries that reach approximately 22°Brix (the sugar concentration measurement). The cherries are then cleaned and sorted manually, minimizing the use of water to avoid damaging the natural balance of the fruit. The fermentation stage proceeds in two phases: first, whole cherry fermentation for about 3 days, followed by the addition of mosto (natural fermentation liquid from previous batches) with a naturally reduced pH. The use of mosto guides the microbial activity in a “gentle” but intentional way, allowing the flavors to develop more distinctly.

After this stage, the cherries are de-pulped and enter the mucilage fermentation phase under controlled oxygen conditions (usually in GrainPro bags or a sealed environment), lasting an additional 24 to 72 hours, depending on the lot. Finally, the coffee is thoroughly washed and moved into a slow drying phase in a dark room for about 30 days, with consistent raking and controlled airflow. Slow drying in a limited-light environment helps preserve the sweetness, clarity, and malleability of the flavor structure.

Overall, the Wave Washed method at Finca Soledad does not seek to create “dramatic” or “unusual” flavors but aims for clarity, deep sweetness, and complexity, where the varietal structure and microclimate conditions are clearly expressed. This is a scientific and sensory-rich approach to coffee processing, where technique and intuition work hand-in-hand to fully protect the bean’s natural value.

Wave Washed, a subtle refinement of the traditional Washed process, is not just a creative processing technique but a philosophy of flavor preservation at Finca Soledad. Its effects on the coffee bean have created a significant difference, clearly demonstrated in the bean’s structure, the final flavor profile, and production stability.

COFFEE BEAN STRUCTURE

The first and most important impact of Wave Washed is its ability to protect the health and integrity of the bean embryo. By using “temperature waves” controlled alternation between high and low temperatures, Pepe regulates the speed of fermentation, keeping biochemical reactions slow and controlled.

During fermentation, this sequential temperature change prevents the bean embryo from undergoing “heat stress” or damage caused by prolonged pH decline. As a result, the coffee bean maintains a strong cellular structure, malleability, and the ability to retain precious flavor compounds. The subsequent 30-day slow drying in a dark room further solidifies this structure, helping the bean maintain uniform moisture and avoid becoming brittle or fractured, a key factor for later roasting quality.

FLAVOR EXPERIENCE

In terms of flavor, Wave Washed aims for purity, deep sweetness, and complexity rather than dramatic or unusual notes. The gentle, guided fermentation using low-pH mosto selectively favors beneficial microbial groups without overpowering the natural characteristics of the coffee varietal.

This creates a very clear flavor profile, distinguished by high sweetness and bright citric acidity.The flavor is not dominated by strong fermentation notes (like wine or excessive sourness) but allows the “living identity” of the varietal, such as Gesha, to be clearly expressed from delicate floral notes to a long finish. This is the testament to the success of Pepe’s minimal yet profound intervention approach.